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Saxby Chambliss: Wouldn't be surprised if Israel tries to take out Iranian nukes

U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss says he wouldn’t be surprised if the Israelis try to take out Iran’s apparently budding nuclear weapons capacity.

The Georgia lawmaker and ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee also says there’s little the United States can do prevent such an action.

Hours after Chambliss talked to reporters in Savannah, a news report said Israel has refused to reassure President Barack Obama that it would warn him of a pre-emptive strike.

The Israelis have balked at ruling out such an attack, especially after a United Nations inspection team found last week that Iran soon may have usable nuclear weapons.

“They’ve made it clear that they want to obliterate Israel,” Chambliss said concerning Iranian leaders. “If they had a nuclear weapon, that potentially could happen.

“You have the president of Iran who gets up every day and ... says, ‘We want to destroy that country.’”

Although he says there is “no indication of anything right now,” Chambliss added that he “would not at all be surprised that there may be a pre-emptive attack.”

Acting on similar beliefs, the Israelis wiped out a nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981 and widely are believed to have attacked a nuclear facility in Syria in 2007.

Chambliss implied that he thinks such an action against Iran might be justified.

“If Iran keeps moving down the road they’re moving on now,” he said, “Israel has every reason in the world to concerned about the future of its country and people. ... I’m not sure there is anything the United States could do to stop Israel.”

But he also said “we owe it to the world” to keep up pressure on Iran to stop deployment of nuclear weapons.

One sanction that hasn’t been tried — but should be — is cutting off imports of refined gasoline to Iran, Chambliss said.

“If we took measures like that,” he said, “we would see that people inside Iran would rise up and revolt against their leadership. I can’t imagine that the people of Iran want nuclear war.”